The Quiet Revolt of the Soul

Photography by Amara Photography

It has been an unusually busy time for us. 

We moved into a new home, started a business, and got married. 

Planning your own wedding in a time when much of the collective is experiencing upheaval and distress is perplexing. 

My normal go to mode is to be overly oriented towards the needs of others, so it became a little bewildering when life urged me to be more self-centered. 

I’ve always been more sensitive to the needs of others over my own. It is generally much easier for me to put focus on the needs of others, put my needs last, or to forget that I have needs in the first place.

This habit is long standing. 

I know it well.

I have worked the majority of the last two decades to understand it for myself and bring it in to balance.

This particular blind spot for “people pleasing” has taught me a great deal about what true connection with myself feels like. It has taught me how to be more compassionate, empowered, and intentional in every area of my life.

Negating your own needs doesn’t make you more authentic nor does it work very well to help propel your life forward.

The more in tune and on purpose you can be with your needs the better chance you have of experiencing what you want most out of life. Especially when what you long for is to be in alignment with your soul.

The soul does not conform to what we think should happen. It guides you based on what will inevitably serve a greater need for the development of yourself in your life. Bringing with it even more beauty, grace, and permission to be yourself.

This year my soul directed me to pay much more attention to the needs of my personal life.

As someone who has always put work before my personal life I was challenged, to say the least, to give way to new priorities.

I learned that there are many different meanings for success. I learned that success professionally does not always equate happiness. I learned that my capacity to respond to the needs of others does not necessitate eclipsing my own need for support, connection, respect and love.

Over and over I learned that to be an effective force for good in the world we need to first be a force for good in our own lives.

We cannot truly impact others and the world around us if we ourselves are not supported and cared for, nourished and resourced, strong and resilient, organized and focused.

For those who care and are oriented more towards the other, I agree with you, the collective demands of today are just overwhelming. Eventually, though, this old, heavy habit of pushing past your own need for care becomes debilitating and ineffective. 

As empathic, sensitive, humanitarian individuals we need to learn how to give priority to how we feel first. We need to honor, acknowledge, and tend to our needs.

To serve from inspiration and lead with integrity we need to be grounded, centered, listening and discerning. We need to know what it feels like to be nourished in order to be intentional about who and what we give our attention and energy to.

In the face of a world that moves at an accelerated pace, it is important for our wellbeing that our actions remain even more intentional, stable, and clear to be effective. Not to mention reflective and generous of the beauty you have inside of you to give.

How you choose to prioritize yourself, the values you live by, and your basic needs for love, care, and connection matters. It influences every relationship you have and everything you do.

No one else has the playbook on how you will take back your power in unrelenting dynamics. Sometimes it is a minute by minute process to remember how to keep your intuitive depth in tact.

I’ve always believed beauty to be a catalytic source. 

Beauty has a power to transform and heal. To touch our lives in diverse and radical ways. It has the power to help wake the senses to what is life affirming and benevolent. Choosing beauty in the face of everything else becomes the quiet revolt of the soul.

This has been my contemplation. Especially this year in the face of so much conflict, divisiveness, and greed. 

How can I be engaged with what is happening and still choose beauty as my response? How can what I choose to live be a force for good? How can I serve and have impact for the better?

The fabric of reality we weave is inter-dependent. We each play a significant role no matter how small or insignificant we may sometimes feel.

Maybe as things drastically change you are being called into a new role of responsibility and leadership. Your own ability to remain responsive is required. Your own inner equilibrium is essential.

Maintaining your inner clarity, especially in the face of all that tries to disturb it, is the first cause for self-care.

Self-care is not always about feeling good. It is about preserving what is sacred and sustaining in your life.

What good is it to strive when we are only managing how stressed, burnt out, and disconnected we feel from ourselves. And, the stakes are even higher today, the risk of not paying attention much greater, and so our response is even more precious and important.

Beauty has a way of softening what has hardened. It has the capacity to penetrate through negligence and numbness. It awakens the spirit of awareness that connects each of us to the very essence of what we are here to preserve and share.

A connection to the heart of humanity.

May you find your way with soul and much more grace than before. May you come to know the healing and unfolding of beauty in your own life.

Yours for the journey,

Andrea Maxine